Do you remember NFTs? Probably because the hype they generated was immense. People literally went crazy for NFTs, spending millions on these unique digital artworks. Twitter communities were massive, and if you followed the right one and secured early access to a drop, you could have made a lot of money.
Still, early access and cheap NFTs on the NFT marketplace were rare; it was almost like a cult you had to be allowed into.
Is 2024 the year NFTs will return? Click here to find out.
Past, Present, and Future NFTs
According to DappRadar, NFTs today represent the most successful year of this kind of business – in 2021, sales were worth $23 billion. This surge happened because NFTs enabled an art and collectibles asset class revolution, creating widespread interest. And celebrities went nuts for them, advertising them across their social media channels and spending millions a piece. When high-profile people like that jump on the hype, people always listen.
Here are some of the most iconic pieces and
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The iconic NFT art of Beeple, a digital artist, was purchased for $69 million at Christie’s in a piece called Every Day: The First 5000 Days. In the first months of 2021, it helped catapult NFTs into mainstream pop culture.
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CryptoPunks: CryptoPunks is an NFT project released in 2017 and has become one of the most recognized projects. One of the CryptoPunks sold for $7.6 million.
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Snoop Dogg launched his own NFTs: In early 2021, Snoop Dogg attempted NFTs with A Journey With The Dogg. He also purchased a part of the Sandback universe and called it SnoopVerse.
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Grimes NFT Collection: A collection of digital art space posters by the musician Grimes, which sold for $6 million on Nifty Gateway.
Still, by early 2022, the market had shifted dramatically to a soft launch – it crashed hard. But that isn’t to say 2024 isn’t the year for recovery. We’ll discuss more on why further along.
Beyond Digital Art
The world of NFTs is no longer limited to digital arts but has started to move into spaces such as music, gaming, and sports. They are new dimensions for artists, gamers, and athletes to connect with fans in authentic ways.
Music
Kings of Leon released their When You See Yourself album as an NFT, with added benefits and goodies (such as limited-edition vinyls) in the form of rare audiovisual art. Electronic artist 3LAU used a similar model, moving NFT collections of his music and began collecting royalties every time his work was sold.
Gaming
NFTs go hand-in-hand with play-to-earn gaming. In-game items can be NFTs that players own, e.g., skins, weapons, characters, etc. This ownership creates monetization possibilities with exclusive digital collectibles available for sale or trade on an open blockchain marketplace by developers.
Sports
Teams use NFTs to engage with fans, drive loyalty, and unlock new revenue performance opportunities. One example is NBA Top Shot, where fans can purchase, sell, and trade officially licensed NBA collectible highlights in the form of NFTs. The Golden State Warriors issued an NFT collection featuring tokenized championship rings and ticket stubs, giving owners unique experiences.
NFTs: What else are they good for?
NFT has a lot of other benefits that even Apply can use.
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Real Estate: Transactions in both the virtual and physical worlds can be tokenized so that processes become easier and add an entirely new layer of functionality.
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Tech: Luxury fashion houses are selling NFTs in the form of digital clothing and accessories.
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NFTs for Education: Academia could verify academic credentials with ease and transfer them.
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Advertising and Marketing: With NFTs, you can get innovative options to reach consumers, such as tokenized coupons, loyalty programs, or exclusive digital content.
Innovation is Coming
Three key trends are driving this growth. For one, connecting real-world NFTs with assets allows physical illiquid assets to be directly minted as a completely liquid on-chain token, linking traditional finance and blockchain.
Experts are talking about the move towards value-based NFTs and what will make their way to actual utility or become more sustainable.
This interoperability, along with usability, is what allows NFTs on Polkadot to naturally flow between different blockchains. The Matera Protocol is on its way to actively monetizing and verifying 3D content as an NFT.
On the AI NFT side of things, platforms like Picasso are allowing people to create truly one-of-a-kind digital art using AI and then mint it on a blockchain.
And then you’ve got massive brands like Nike and Starbucks experimenting with mass-market NFTs to build brand loyalty. If big brands and big names start joining the NFT hype again, then surely the market will rise again.
Institutional Engagement
NFTs are also being picked up by museums and cultural institutions to guarantee that they keep them in place.
Take Feral File, for example. In 2023 alone, the platform sold 27 works to significant institutions. The Centre Pompidou in Paris snapped up 14 digital artworks as part of a wider effort by top cultural institutions to collect more cutting-edge work.
There is a much larger process of preserving digital art for future generations that extends beyond blockchain. For example, artists such as Anne Spalter offer backup storage and certificates of authenticity for their digital art.
If you are a creator, 2024 is likely to bring new avenues of utility and growth that will change how we approach art in the future. It’ll be exciting to see if the NFT market does pick up again because the ability to buy and sell and make big profits was massive.